The first stories that opera told derived from Greek myth. Four hundred years later, composers still find those primal fables irresistible, but while the myths may be central to Western culture, there is so much back-story that contemporary music and audiences struggle to cope.
So it seemed, at least, while watching Julian Grant's Odysseus Unwound, which adds extra storytelling ballast to Odysseus's homecoming travails by incorporating a narrative about knitting and weaving, not from Greece, but from Shetland. Myths embody universal, not local truths, and the show is staged by Tête à Tête, a company that shirks no challenge, but the results are opaque.
Five women from Shetland, onstage throughout, knit and weave, occasionally joining the drama; mostly they seem as peripheral as tricoteuses at the guillotine. Bill Bankes-Jones's production makes ingenious use of knit-and-weave motifs, but only intermittently do the metaphors and Hattie Naylor's wordy libretto entwine productively.
From time to time, Grant's music cuts a way through, both vocally and instrumentally, and the singers do all they can to clarify-both text and action. Each of the five women (to whom Grant gives the most striking music) takes on a hatful of roles, while Daniel Broad is Odysseus throughout. That much, at least, is clear, but too often, the only way to make sense of the plot is to read the programme.
The show returns the Ally Pally Theatre to professional theatrical use for the first time since 1933. It is a magnificently dishevelled building; so magnificent, indeed, that it threatens to overshadow the opera.
Further performances tonight, Sunday, Monday. Information: 01473 320407.
Tete A Tete: Odysseus Unwound
Alexandra Palace
Alexandra Palace, N22 7AY
